Sledgehammer's Cycles

Friday, November 9, 2012

Weapons are what made us human

Boffins investigating a find of ancient stone blades over 70 thousand
years old argue that it was possession of advanced ranged weapons - and
the organisation to make and use them - which allowed humanity to defeat
its early rivals and spread out to conquer the world.

...

"These early moderns probably also had higher levels of pro-social
(hyper-cooperative) behavior. These two traits were a knockout punch.
Combine them, as modern humans did and still do, and no prey or
competitor is safe," he adds. "This probably laid the foundation for the
expansion out of Africa of modern humans and the extinction of many
prey as well as our sister species such as Neanderthals."

...

The group's paper has thus made it into hefty boffinry mag Nature, where subscribers can read it here. There's also a free digest for laymen courtesy of Arizona State uni here.

I'm certain that none of this will come as a surprise to readers here. It likely will be a surprise to the sort that reads Nature. Hey - the science is settled! Peer-reviewed, even. What, are you some sort of Denier?